Figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) show that in November 2000,44 per cent of women who regularly worked overtime in their main job reported that they were not paid for this overtime. The corresponding figure for men was 28 per cent.

The survey showed that 2.5 million of Australia's 7.7 million employees aged 15 years and over regularly worked overtime in their main job.

Other results from the survey, Working Arrangements, Australia, show that:

the majority of employees (80 per cent) are in the private sector;

part-time employees comprise a quarter of the workforce (27 per cent);

almost three-quarters of employees (72 per cent) are entitled to either paid sick leave or paid holiday leave;

a quarter of employees (25 per cent) have children under 12 years of age.

In the four weeks prior to the November 2000 survey, 14 per cent of employees had worked shift work. A higher proportion of part-time employees worked shift work compared to full-time employees (16 per cent compared to 13 per cent). Male employees were more likely to have worked shift work than female employees, in both full-time work (14 per cent compared to 11 per cent) and part-time work (17 per cent compared to 16 per cent).

Almost one in five employees (19 per cent) had an absence from work of at least three hours in the two weeks prior to the survey. The most common reasons for absences were 'own ill health, physical disability' (35 per cent) and 'recreational purposes' (34 per cent).

There were 1,900,400 employees (25 per cent) who had children under the age of 12 years. Of these, 28 per cent had used formal childcare in the last two weeks.

Copies of the publication Working Arrangements, Australia, November 2000(cat. no. 6342.0) are available from ABS bookshops. This release and a summary of the publication may be found on the Internet at www.abs.gov.au.If you wish to purchase a copy of this publication contact the ABS Bookshop in your capital city.